Derrick Rose‘s alleged rape saga keeps getting uglier. Last Friday, Rose and his lawyers beckoned a federal court to force his accuser — previously known only as “Jane Doe” in legal documents — to reveal her identity publicly. The notice they filed claims the woman and her lawyers have attempted to smear Rose’s name and garner public support via the media.
On Tuesday, a judge in Los Angeles ruled that the woman will, indeed, have to reveal her name publicly during the trial. Via Brian Melley of the Associated Press:
The 30-year-old woman says the former MVP and two of his friends raped her in 2013 while she was incapacitated from drinking. Rose denies her claims and contends he had consensual sex with the woman.
Rose’s lawyer argued his client would be harmed if the woman’s identity wasn’t revealed, and he cited interviews and a press conference she conducted last week as a reason to use her real name.
It bears mentioning that the current case is a civil trial, although Doe and her attorneys are now claiming they have evidence to move forward with criminal proceedings. However, they’ve yet to produce such evidence. It’s unclear at this point whether that will come to fruition or whether the case might result in a settlement, but revealing an alleged victim’s identity opens that person up to all sorts of ridicule, public shaming, and character assassinations. This is especially so in this case as Jane Doe has admitted during interviews her family doesn’t know she’s the plaintiff in the case.
